I hold the view that we should forgive but not forget about the May 13 Incident. All Malaysians , young and old , should know the important historical events of our land, regardless of whether it was positive or negative in nature. May 13 Incident was regarded as the darkest hours in our 50 years of nationhood. We should know who were the culprits and why it has taken place. With a clear knowledge and understanding of the ugly incident, we should know what need to be done to keep Malaysia a peaceful and prosperous nation.

It’s our common goal to keep every Malaysians happy and safe, living harmoniously together. No one (especially Umno) should use the May 13 Incident again to threaten voters.

If Umno as a party has made such a serious mistake in the past, the current leadership should be bold enough to admit it. They should even apologise for the crimes committed in the past. The last thing they should do is to prevent the younger generations from knowing the hitory by banning the book.

6 Responses to “May 13: Forgive but not forget”

True forgiveness can only happen with total forgetfulness[ie as if it does not happen]We have to recopncile the fact that the forgiver and forgiven am one[both are manesfestation of oneness or simply put the creation of the one god.]The problem with present day of mistaken secularism that DEMAND religion to be one of personal relation and not for pubilc airing is what create the sin of seperation.God is for all.while the opinion of man such as secularism should be kept on personal level and not dominate the public domain.This why buddha often quoated,santient beings are upside down.[Avoiding the things they should do and doing the thing they should not do]By wrongly positioning religion and secularism,the host of problems multiply and will continue,until one behave in accordance to the TAO[All is ONE which in the holy koran is stated as TAWHID]

Malaysians of all races must read the latest book on the May 13 riots with an open mind and positive attitude, according to former Utusan Melayu editor-in-chief Said Zahari.

He said the ‘May 13′ riots in 1969 is a historical reality and mature people should not be afraid to face up to history.

“There are certainly lessons to be learned by all sides. But before correct lessons can be learned, there must first be correct facts. Otherwise, we would be learning the wrong lessons,” he added.

Said has yet to read the book, titled ‘May 13: Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969’. However, he said its author Dr Kua Kia Soong is a “progressive and rational intellectual”.

This is why, he added, he allowed his poem to be included in the book.

“When I came to know about what happened in Kuala Lumpur on May 13, 1969 and could not do anything inside Singapore’s detention centre, I penned the poem ‘Hidden Hands’ to express my sorrow and grief,” he said.

Said was detained without trial for 17 years in Singapore from 1963-1979 for allegedly being a ‘communist’ and later an ‘Indonesian agent’.

‘Negative influences’

“Those who have read the book and think that they have other facts and interpretations should present them rationally with the right intention to find out the truth and contribute to national reconciliation, but those who have not read the book should read it first before they give their opinions,” he added.

Yesterday, there were calls for the book to be banned and action taken against its author. It was also reported that internal security ministry officials had seized several copies of the book from the MPH bookstore in the MidValley Shopping Mall in Kuala Lumpur.

The book was launched last Sunday at the Kuala Lumpur-Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

Said also pointed out: “The correct intention of writing or reading history books is not to re-open old wounds or take revenge but to learn fact-based lessons with the view of not repeating mistakes and errors.”

He said Malaysian and Singaporean societies are multi-ethnic and “vulnerable” to “negative influences” from other parts of the world.

Therefore, he said, it is important for people of different ethnic communities to develop a stronger sense of mutual understanding, empathy and solidarity based on truth, justice, fairness and inclusiveness.

We should abolish all history lessons in class if ever the UMNO led government want to distort the facts of May 13 1969.

All Malaysians should learn from past mistakes and learn to live with each other without any suspicion. The BN led Govt. has not learned to accept that this incident has brought us back 20 years behind Singapore and other neighboring countires like China and Korea.

We continue to be suspicious of each other and each race is continuing to protect their ethnic rights instead of living as Malaysians. All races should forget about ethnic rights and start to talk about Malaysian rights only.

Forget that you’re a Chinese first!
Forget that you’re a Malay first!
Forget that you’re an Iban first!
Forget that you’re a Kadazan first!
Forget that you’re an Indian first!

I’m Malaysian first!

So it’s time to forget UMNO, MIC, MCA. These are the parties who divide Malaysians.

I’m sad and sick that everyone conveniently jumps to the notion that ’13 May’ is a true historical account or the historical reality that have been hidden from the Malaysian society for years – how people love controversies nowadays, even if stories which claims it unearths the entire truth does not truly hold to its ethos.

The racial conflict did not begin on 13 May. Neither it started a week before. The racial tension was a melting pot waiting to explode. A melting pot that developed through years of tension and hurt. For God sake, have a slightly longer memory.

[…] I hope no one hates me for writing this. But just as everyone who supports the book would say: ‘We should forgive but not forget about the May 13 Incident. All Malaysians, young and old, should kn….’ […]

List of racial discriminations in Malaysia, practiced by government as well as government agencies. This list is an open secret. Best verified by government itself because it got the statistics.

This list is not in the order of importance, that means the first one on the list is not the most important and the last one on the list does not mean least important.

This list is a common knowledge to a lot of Malaysians, especially those non-malays (Chinese, Ibans, Kadazans, Orang Asli, Tamils, etc) who were being racially discriminated.

Figures in this list are estimates only and please take it as a guide only. Government of Malaysia has the most correct figures. Is government of Malaysia too ashamed to publish their racist acts by publishing racial statistics?

This list cover a period of about 50 years since independence (1957).

List of racial discriminations (Malaysia):

(1) Out of all the 5 major banks, only one bank is multi-racial, the rest are controlled by malays

(2) 99% of Petronas directors are malays

(3) 3% of Petronas employees are Chinese

(4) 99% of 2000 Petronas gasoline stations are owned by malays

(5) 100% all contractors working under Petronas projects must be bumis status

(6) 0% of non-malay staffs is legally required in malay companies. But there must be 30% malay staffs in Chinese companies

(7) 5% of all new intake for government army, nurses, polices, is non-malays

(8) 2% is the present Chinese staff in Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), drop from 40% in 1960

(9) 2% is the percentage of non-malay government servants in Putrajaya. But malays make up 98%

(10) 7% is the percentage of Chinese government servants in the whole government (in 2004), drop from 30% in 1960

(11) 95% of government contracts are given to malays

(12) 100% all business licensees are controlled by malay government e.g. Approved Permits, Taxi Permits, etc

(13) 80% of the Chinese rice millers in Kedah had to be sold to malay controlled Bernas in 1980s. Otherwise, life is make difficult for Chinese rice millers

(14) 100 big companies set up, managed and owned by Chinese Malaysians were taken over by government, and later managed by malays since 1970s e.g. MISC, UMBC, UTC, etc

(15) At least 10 Chinese owned bus companies (throughout Malaysia, throughout 40 years) had to be sold to MARA or other malay transport companies due to rejection by malay authority to Chinese application for bus routes and rejection for their application for new buses

(16) 2 Chinese taxi drivers were barred from driving in Johor Larkin bus station. There are about 30 taxi drivers and 3 are Chinese in October 2004. Spoiling taxi club properties was the reason given

(17) 0 non-malays are allowed to get shop lots in the new Muar bus station (November 2004)

(18) 8000 billion ringgit is the total amount the government channeled to malay pockets through ASB, ASN, MARA, privatisation of government agencies, Tabung Haji etc, through NEP over 34 years period

(23) While a Chinese parent with RM1000 salary (monthly) cannot get school-text-book-loan, a malay parent with RM2000 salary is eligible

(24) 10 all public universities vice chancellors are malays

(25) 5% – the government universities lecturers of non-malay origins had been reduced from about 70% in 1965 to only 5% in 2004

(26) Only 5% is given to non-malays for government scholarships over 40 years

(27) 0 Chinese or Indians were sent to Japan and Korea under “Look East Policy”

(28) 128 STPM Chinese top students could not get into the course that they aspired e.g. Medicine (in 2004)

(29) 10% place for non-bumi students for MARA science schools beginning from year 2003, but only 7% are filled. Before that it was 100% malays

(30) 50 cases whereby Chinese and Indian Malaysians, are beaten up in the National Service program in 2003

(31) 25% is Malaysian Chinese population in 2004, drop from 45% in 1957

(32) 7% is the present Malaysian Indians population (2004), a drop from 12% in 1957

(33) 2 million Chinese Malaysians had emigrated to overseas since 40 years ago

(34) 0.5 million Indian Malaysians had emigrated to overseas

(35) 3 million Indonesians had migrated into Malaysia and became Malaysian citizens with bumis status

(36) 600000 are the Chinese and Indian Malaysians with red IC and were rejected repeatedly when applying for citizenship for 40 years. Perhaps 60% of them had already passed away due to old age. This shows racism of how easily Indonesians got their citizenship compare with the Chinese and Indians

(37) 5% – 15% discount for a malay to buy a house, regardless whether the malay is poor or rich

(38) 2% is what Chinese new villages get compare with 98% of what malay villages got for rural development budget

(39) 50 road names (at least) had been changed from Chinese names to other names

(40) 1 Dewan Gan Boon Leong (in Malacca) was altered to other name (e.g. Dewan Serbaguna or sort) when it was being officially used for a few days. Government try to shun Chinese names. This racism happened in around year 2000 or sort

(41) 0 churches/temples were built for each housing estate. But every housing estate got at least one mosque/surau built

(42) 3000 mosques/surau were built in all housing estates throughout Malaysia since 1970. No churches, no temples are required to be built in housing estates

(43) 1 Catholic church in Shah Alam took 20 years to apply to be constructed. But told by malay authority that it must look like a factory and not look like a church. Still not yet approved in 2004

(44) 1 publishing of Bible in Iban language banned (in 2002)

(45) 0 of the government TV stations (RTM1, RTM2, TV3) are directors of non-malay origins

(46) 30 government produced TV dramas and films always showed that the bad guys had Chinese face, and the good guys had malay face. You can check it out since 1970s. Recent years, this tendency becomes less

(47) 10 times, at least, malays (especially Umno) had threatened to massacre the Chinese Malaysians using May 13 since 1969

(48) 20 constituencies won by DAP would not get funds from the government to develop. Or these Chinese majority constituencies would be the last to be developed

(49) 100 constituencies (parliaments and states) had been racistly re-delineated so Chinese voters were diluted that Chinese candidates, particularly DAP candidates lost in election since 1970s

(50) Only 3 out of 12 human rights items are ratified by Malaysia government since 1960

(51) 0 – elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (UN Human Rights) is not ratified by Malaysia government since 1960s

(53) 50 cases each year whereby Chinese, especially Chinese youths being beaten up by malay youths in public places. We may check at police reports provided the police took the report, otherwise there will be no record

(54) 20 cases every year whereby Chinese drivers who accidentally knocked down malays were seriously assaulted or killed by malays

(55) 12% is what ASB/ASN got per annum while banks fixed deposit is only about 3.5% per annum

There are hundreds more racial discriminations in Malaysia to add to this list of “colossal” racism. It is hope that the victims of racism will write in to expose racism.

Malaysia government should publish statistics showing how much malays had benefited from the “special rights” of malays and at the same time tell the statistics of how much other minority races are being discriminated.

Hence, the responsibility lies in the Malaysia government itself to publish unadulterated statistics of racial discrimination.

If the Malaysia government hides the statistics above, then there must be some evil doings, immoral doings, shameful doings and sinful doings, like the Nazi, going on onto the non-malays of Malaysia.

Civilized nation, unlike evil Nazi, must publish statistics to show its treatment on its minority races. This is what Malaysia must publish……….

We are asking for the publication of the statistics showing how “implementation of special rights of malays” had inflicted colossal racial discrimination onto non-malays.